Compositions for styling the hair are known, such as, for example, hair spray compositions, hair gels and mousses, hair volumizing compositions, hair smoothing creams, lotions, serums, oils, clays, etc. The goals of many hair styling compositions include holding or fixing the hair in a particular shape, imparting or increasing volume of the hair, smoothing the hair, and/or decreasing or eliminating the appearance of frizz.
Current products for styling the hair typically include water-soluble film-forming polymers. Depending on the chemical make-up of these polymers, they may be either soluble in water, or they may be water insoluble polymers which are made water soluble via various chemical modifications, such as neutralization. Solutions comprising these polymers tend to be viscous, and often as the concentration of the polymer increases, its viscosity rapidly increases. In styling applications, as the solvent evaporates, the polymer solution becomes thicker on the hair surface, resulting in a sticky or tacky film. These products also tend to exhibit problems with product spreadability, hair manageability, and humidity resistance, which is especially a problem in hot and humid environments.
Particularly, while previous compositions comprising latex polymers may provide clean properties to the hair given its anionic nature, the clean properties can translate into difficult application and/or distribution of the product, quick absorption, dryness, and/or possibly static in the hair. The presence of film formers can also leave the hair with a stiff, crunchy, and/or sticky feel. Often, other ingredients and traditional silicones may be used in combination with latex polymers to overcome the brittleness and stiffness that may result from the use of latex polymers in hair compositions. However, this tends to make the hair feel greasy and oily and it can still be challenging for manufacturers to incorporate new ingredients into the compositions because this may negatively impact performance, certain cosmetic attributes, texture, and formulation stability. Alternative conditioning agents, such as non-ionic silicones and humectants, can actually plasticize the film produced by the product, thus affecting its high humidity curl retention, and creating build up, which weighs down the hair.
There is thus a need for new hair styling products which address one or more of these problems.